So what is MAV?                                                              

Men Against Violence at PLU is a group which is part of a growing world wide effort to raise the level of awareness among men, around Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

The goal is not simply to make men aware, but to empower them to speak out against sexist actions and beliefs that support these issues. Men of all backgrounds need to end our collective silence and stand up to be counted with the majority of men who will not condone or support gendered violence, or the sexist beliefs that sustain it.

This area of MAV work is important for a couple reasons:

First, we all have women (and men) in our lives that we care for and love. The fact is that since 1 in 4 women is or will be impacted by assault, it impacts the men that love them as well. These issues are clearly not just issues that women have to deal with, we need to be involved.

 Second, because the issue that too many men allow the "bad apples" to make us all at some time or other feel the need to say "I'm not one of those guys" is one that we need to take on and oppose openly. We allow the very few among us who control or hurt women to feel powerful, control what others see in us when we walk through a dark parking lot. While women have every right and reason to be afraid, we have an obligation to help create a safer society, and in doing so reclaim the respect of women as safe friends in the world.

Our Goals:

• To engage men as partners in the prevention of violence against women
• Tto create and maintain a safe space to discuss issues of masculinity
• Tto support women and men in prevention related efforts -to improve safety through the prevention of gendered violence
• To demonstrate that violence against women is a men's issue too
• To recognize the mis-education regarding masculinity and expand on the definition of masculinity.